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designing and building with wood channels my creativity and challenges my mind.This blog is a record of my life in my studio.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Mahogany and bamboo stand

I had some extra mahogany and bamboo plywood lying around the shop, so I decided to make a stand for a 40 gallon breeder tank. This project represents a couple of firsts for me: it's the first time I re-sawed thick stock to make up thinner boards, and the first time I've used curved parts in a design.

The curves are found on the face of the door. They were made on the bandsaw by first cutting the curve, then re-sawing the milled part in half the long way, creating two matched pieces.
The 3/4" frame parts (making up the legs and the door) were all re-sawn from 1 3/4" thick mahogany stock.

The size of the stand was limited by the length of mahogany stock I had available. The lumber was purchased from my local Rockler store as shorts (4 feet and shorter), and cost a mere $2 per board foot. I only had one 4' piece, hence the need to re-saw it into thinner boards. This way, I had enough long boards to make all of the leg components.
Although I could have used white, "natural" bamboo plywood, I also had a sheet of "carbonized" plywood, which I chose for this project. I felt that the white-and-mahogany color scheme would have been too loud, so I opted for a more muted two-tone look. I didn't stain either the mahogany or the plywood, instead laying down a sealer coat of de-waxed shellac. This gave everything a deeper, more yellow cast. The final color scheme of the piece may not appeal to everybody. But it does have a certain tropical look, which I like.